The Casino
by Cirrus The One And Only
Summary: One of those old "Ryouga Sightings" fics. Ryouga befriends a girl on one of his various attempts to go home. What can I say, besides short, sweet and not really having much of a point! R&R please!


Author's Notes: I wrote this about a million billion trillion years ago. . .(okay, so it was more like two years ago, what's the diff?) when I was still Ranko520 on the The Church Of Ryouga Mailing List. The big fad then was to write "Ryouga sighting" stories. I mention a few of the previous ones that others had written, such as Ryouga meeting a teenage girl in the woods and Ryouga saving a classroom of students from a columbine-esque gunman. For some reason I never finished this story, but now that I'm bored and suffering from EXTREME writer's block I figured now was as good a time as any. . .  
  
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It was the worst birthday of my life. Sort of.  
  
It was definitely one I'll never forget.  
  
The plan seemed euphoric enough at first--for my 16th birthday, my boyfriend Andy, Katrina my best friend and I would go to the video game arcade by the sea and play video games until our hands could no longer hold a pencil. Good thing, since school had just recently been let out for the summer.  
  
And it was going great--until we started playing in the laser tag arena. I was excitedly crouched low behind an obstacle, laser gun ready, ugly vest flashing it's garish lights, when I saw a few pairs of shoes go by, the white soles glowing neon blue in the black light. I slowly stood up, ready to ambush, hand over the laser barrel, when I saw who my targets were. And who could they be?  
  
Andy's hand was closed firmly around Katrina's white-short-short-ed ass. His other hand held hers in what he called a "love grip". At least, that's what he called it when he did it to me. When he still held me that way. Don't assume that Katrina was fighting back, O sympathetic reader. No, she was the one that was using her free hand around his neck to pull him farther into the kiss that clearly defined both raging hormones and raging whore. Actually, I couldn't figure out which one was the whore. All I do could do as they slowly noticed me and pulled apart-I could no longer hear the blaring techno mosh-pit music, or speak the millions of words that flew across my mind--was feel. I felt shock, disgust, anger, hurt, hatred, pain-- I just...felt. sorry for the crappy description, but sometimes it's the crudest of words that best gets the point across, no da.  
  
As both their cloudy eyes settled on me, I realized that there was nothing to be said here, and that the only rational thing left was to just leave. Pick up whatever you have left girl, and get the hell out of here. It was starting to feel like hell, literally--the rising heat in my cheeks only added to the 100' heat of the whole arcade. I silently turned, blinded by the hot tears that seemed to sizzle across my face, still holding the laser gun in appropriate play fashion, one hand poised over the barrel, ready to strike. I stumbled to the exit door just as the game ended. It opened automatically for me, and I took a moment in my scattered mind to thank it. I threw my vest and gun numbly back on the hook, and slammed the door in the faces of the people behind me as I went back into the main arcade. I think Andy and Katrina just stayed there, drunk and making out.  
  
When at last I felt like I could stop walking around, I found a bench and fell down on it. I will not lose it, I thought to myself. I will not cry and declare my life over just because my boyfriend is an asshole and my best friend is a slut, I hate being hot and it's 1,000 degrees in here, and it's my freakin' BIRTHDAY...that broke my reserve. I stood up, ready to kill someone, when I heard a jingle in my pocket. Temporarily distracted, I reached a hand inside and felt a jingling of arcade tokens. I still had about $15 worth of them left, with about 2 tokens to a game. As if guided by fate, my eye fell on my favorite arcade video game, Virtua Fighter 2. Good. This might be just what I need. I jammed 2 of the little brass coins in the slot and selected Pai as my character. She was my favorite--a pretty little Chinese warrior girl. I always played her.  
  
Aggressively and vicariously living through her, Pai fought our way through four tournaments of big, testosterone overloaded ninjas, monsters, and even the freakishly buxom, muscular girl fighters. We made a good team, Pai and I. I threw all my fury into the game, slamming down on the kick, punch, block buttons and the joystick. I felt my anger being drained out of my body, replaced with a little-felt sensation known as...fun?  
  
But then, my luck changed. Pai lost round 1, but managed to get it back in round 2. Now it was round three against a skateboard punk (Andy was a skateboarder--this should have been easy as hell), and Pai was falling worse for wear. I was pissed. Damn it Pai, get going! I shouted mentally. My teeth grit as the health meter fell dangerously low.  
  
"Do a low side kick." I heard a voice behind me say. To this day, I still wonder why I just did it without even looking around, but I took the suggestion anyway, and Pai managed to throw the skater punk back.  
  
"Now right when he gets up, give him a high kick in the head and a hard punch." The voice continued. Again without thinking, I complied and sent the opponent flying. Pai continued to attack the punk without stopping, and by a very close shave, began the journey to the 5th tournament. I took the opportunity to look around and thank my advisor, and when I saw the person, I froze.  
  
It wasn't that he was particularly bad-looking--quite the contrary, actually. It was the fact that...let me explain it another way. Have you ever seen someone on the street that you could swear on your life was a celebrity? Or, if you have an opportunity to meet someone famous, and you see them in the flesh and this weird chill passes through you? That's what I felt for that half a second. For months now, I had been hearing the oddest stories all over town--a teenager wearing a yellow and black samurai-tied style bandanna who had defended a classroom from a gunman, who had appeared to talk to a girl between classes at a high school only to disappear without a trace, had been seen fighting with supernatural powers at three in the morning, had appeared naked in a bathtub out of nowhere. All these centered around an apparently lost young man, who when described, sounded uncannily like the person looking back at me.  
  
It was the clothes, however, that threw me a little off track. The "bandanna boy" was always reported as wearing a yellow sweater, green fatigue pants with cords around the shins, a red backpack, and heavy red bamboo umbrella. The bandanna-clad boy did have thick black hair and almond shaped brown eyes like they said, but he was wearing a dark blue tank top and red denim shorts. Flat black shoes were on his feet. Kimono slippers, I think they were called.  
  
"You wanna play?" I asked him, sounding fearlessly candid. I motioned to the screen, where a new tournament was about to be set up.  
  
He looked down--was that a blush I saw?  
  
"Umm...I don't have any money. And I just want to ask if you might know where--"  
  
"oh don't worry about money! I have more than enough." I said brightly, hoping he wasn't taking this as a blatant pass at him.  
  
Hesitatingly, he came over. I dropped 2 more tokens in the 2nd player slot, and the screen came alive. He picked a character quickly. The striped Japanese monster.  
  
"I usually don't play video games" he said uncomfortably. The fight began. Pai/me closed in the attack quickly, but my companion/opponent wasn't moving at all. Pai was winning, but it wasn't any fun. I looked at the guy. His face was blank, confused.  
  
"Come on! Hit me!" I said encouragingly. He looked at me. He was really cute, I realized.  
  
"I can't hit a girl." he said simply.  
  
I rolled my eyes. Men. "How very gallant of you. But unfortunately, your character doesn't feel the same way, and he's getting his butt kicked. Come on, it's even worse to let her win." I pressed him.  
  
His face got stormy. "Fine then!" and he lightly tapped the punch button on his side of the game. The striped monster got to his feet and threw Pai across the screen, with a small wave of computer generated blood flowing behind her. Immediately half her health meter disappeared.  
  
Whoa, I thought. Maybe I'd better play that guy next time! I looked over at my new friend. A tiny little glimmer of a smile pulled up the corner of his mouth. The monster and Pai were even now. I had better get in gear if I was going to win this round, and with a "waaaaaaaaaaaaah!" did a spinning kick that snapped the monster's head back. CG blood fell like rain. I realized that my buddy had gone silent and unmoving again. He was no fun for a competitive nut like me!  
  
"Come on! You gonna let a GIRL beat your ass? Gonna let a CHINESE GIRL in a STUPID LITTLE HAT beat your ass?" I jeered.  
  
His face twisted and he slammed down four buttons at once. The plastic button console split down the middle and broke in half. You could hear quarters inside the machine as it almost fell over. The light of the game screen blinked with the force of his hit. Pai writhed on the screen, deader than dead.  
  
I gaped at this guy, with huge eyes and no words. He looked equally shocked at his own strength. People around us had turned around and started to stare.  
  
"Uhm. . . we should get out of here." I said to the boy. He nodded a little, and we both ran like crazy for the exit. I opened the door and gasped with relief, taking in deep gulps of the cool ocean air.  
  
"They make arcade games much more durable in Japan." Bandanna boy muttered behind me. I turned around.  
  
"Is that where you're from?"  
  
He nodded, looking past me at the ocean. "I think I might be back there soon. If that ocean out there is the same one I'm thinking it is, anyway."  
  
"What the hell do you mean by that?" I asked, confused. How could you not know which ocean was which?  
  
"It's not the Indian Ocean?"  
  
I was really hoping that he was playing dumb with me. If he was, he was kind of funny. Man, do I rebound quick!  
  
"What's your name?"  
  
"Ryouga."  
  
"Cool name."  
  
"Uh, thanks."  
  
I went to go sit down on the sand. He still stood there, blushing until I called him over and told him to come sit with me.  
  
"So are you here on vacation?"  
  
"No, I'm. . .lost."  
  
"Lost in the city? I could help you find your way home, Ryouga, I know this place like the back of my hand!" I wasn't even being sarcastic either!  
  
"N-no, that's very kind of you and all, but. . .I'm lost and need to find my way back to Nerima. The place in Japan that I am from."  
  
"I reaaaaaaally hope that you're kidding, dude. How in the hell do you get lost in Japan and wander all the way across the ocean to California?"  
  
"This is CALIFORNIA??" Ryouga shouted, jumping up. The expression on my face as I looked up at him was one of pure astonishment. What kind of drugs was this karate kid on?  
  
"I'M COMING HOME, AKANE!" Ryouga screamed out into the night, and ran at full force into the ocean waves that were black with the moonlight. I jumped up too, stumbling over the sand and tried to run after him, but this crazy Japanese boy disappeared at the very moment he seemed to touch the water. I stood there at the edge of the shore for the longest time, staring after him and wishing that he'd come back. Eventually, I turned away and walked back into the casino.  
  
Andy was there at the skee-ball machine, Katrina was leaning against him. I whistled, and he turned around slowly. He was still drunk, which made it all the easier for me to throw a hard punch across his ugly face.  
  
"I'm going to miss you, Ryouga." I muttered as I walked out of the Casino. 


End file.
